Targeted Killing...

Targeted Killing...

As world leaders in Madrid grieve the deaths of more than 201
victims of the train bombing, and Israel takes flak from the
Europeans for the targeted killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, three
anti-terrorism models emerge.

(1) The first model is bureaucratic. It has been articulated by
Javier Solana, a Spaniard and European Union foreign policy chief.
"Europe is not at war," Mr. Solana said. "We must oppose terrorism
energetically, but we must not change our way of life. We are
democrats who love freedom.

His boss, Romano Prodi, EU Commission president said the answer to
fighting terrorism is, among other things, quicker adoption of the
EU Constitution. European heads of state are adopting a declaration
of solidarity with Spain and a call to jointly fight terrorism and
"root causes of terrorism - conflicts, poverty, deprivation and
frustration."

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said "a hard-line
security policy does not improve security unless it is complemented
by a political strategy." But 21/2 years after the September 11
attacks on the U.S., "political strategy" has not prevented the
Madrid massacre.

Mr. de Villepin's answer to fighting terror is also to speed
transfer of power from the coalition to the United Nations in Iraq.
He apparently believes terrorism will stop afterward.

Mr. de Villepin's information on Iraq seems deeply flawed. He said,
under Saddam, "there was no terrorism in Iraq." However, Baghdad
harbored such terrorists and operations as Ansar Al Islam, the Abu
Mussab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda branch; Mohammad Abbas, hijacker of
the Achille Lauro cruise ship and murderer of disabled American
Leon Klinghoffer; and Abu Nidal, the 1970s superterrorist. Saddam's
$20,000 payments to each Palestinian murder-suicide bomber's family
is certainly terrorism.

The European answer in their "no-war" on terrorism is more
bureaucracy: Mr. Solana is appointing the Dutchman Gijs de Vries,
former state secretary of the interior, as the new EU antiterrorism
co-ordinator. However, European politicians warned Mr. de Vries
will be a "technical man," "not like Tom Ridge" and the new
structure will not become "an EU CIA."

A Europewide security service is vital in view of disappearing
borders in the EU, the Madrid bombing and the Greek pleas that
Athens' security is not ready for this year's Olympics. However,
uniting European spooks will be like herding cats.

German Interior Minister Otto Schilly, one of Europe's toughest
terror fighters, has warned that historic and operational
differences between European security services and intelligence
agencies will prevent effective information-sharing. Small
countries' services are woefully underfunded.

Most importantly, continuous Europe's anti-American rhetoric and
anti-Israel stance will impede Europe's effective struggle against
terror's financial, political and ideological sponsors. Mr. Solana
has called Israel's targeted killing of the Hamas leader Sheik
Ahmed Yassin "extremely terrible," a killing most European foreign
ministers harshly denounced. This included the Russian Foreign
Ministry, which initiated U.N. condemnation of the Yassin
operation, while mopping up after Russian intelligence operatives
who have assassinated Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, a Chechen terrorist
leader in Qatar.

(2) The second antiterror model has emerged in Pakistan, where
7,000 troops failed to storm an al Qaeda compound harboring up to
500 terrorists. President Pervez Musharraf announced a high-value
target, possibly al Qaeda's No. 2, Aiman Al Zawahiri, has been
trapped. Unfortunately, the Pakistanis suffered casualties, were
ambushed, and fought to a standstill. They now are negotiating with
local tribes for an honorable way out.

The Pakistani army, prodded by the United States, failed to use
overwhelming artillery, armor and air power to finish off al Qaeda.
There was a great intelligence failure. Pakistan's ISI - the spy
agency originally tied to the Taliban and al Qaeda - supposedly did
not know the besieged compound had a mile-long escape tunnel. It is
also possible al Qaeda sympathizers inside Pakistani military and
intelligence service intentionally sabotaged the operation - and
their president's orders.

(3) The third model was demonstrated by Israelis in Gaza. Hamas
leader Sheik Yassin and his retinue were killed by three
helicopter-launched missiles in the four minutes it takes to walk
from a mosque to the Sheik's home. Yassin, on the U.S. global top
terrorist list, founded Hamas as a militant offshoot of the Muslim
Brotherhood, a radical Islamist organization that aims to destroy
Israel and moderate Arab regimes.

Something like the killing of Yassin takes months of meticulous
intelligence preparation and coordination between high-tech assets,
such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Israeli Air Force
helicopters. This operation was akin to elimination by a U.S.
Predator UAV of a senior al Qaeda operative responsible for the USS
Cole attack in Yemen.

Sheik Yassin was one of the Middle East's biggest mass murderers of
Jews and Arabs, sending Palestinian boys as young as 12 for suicide
bomber training and sanctioning mothers to become human
bombs.

Yassin was responsible for the deaths of hundreds and lifelong
maiming of thousands of Israeli women, children and elderly. He set
up brainwashing factories in mosques and schools to legitimize and
enable murder of Jews whom he called "sons of monkeys and pigs," in
preparation to total destruction of Israel. Glorifying him as a
"spiritual leader" is like glorifying Joseph Goebbels as a
"spiritual leader" of the Third Reich.

While not perfect, robust antiterror operations will remain the
most effective tools in a policymaker's arsenal when diplomacy and
deterrence fail. These operations need supporting measures, such
as:

Interruption of terror financing.

Coordination of police.

And most important, the "war of ideas" - the battle for hearts
and minds of Muslims.

I n absence of effective nation-states able to control global
radical Islamist terrorist networks, from Madrid to Gaza to the
North Western Province in Pakistan, targeted killings are
legitimate acts of national self-defense.